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Starts and Stripes reports that Marine Corps Commandant General James F. Amos just dropped a rhetorical bomb on renewed efforts to repeal "don't ask, don't tell":

ARLINGTON, Va. — The nation’s top Marine Corps officer said he read the Pentagon’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” report and troop survey repeatedly, thoughtfully, and without prejudice before deciding he could not endorse a change that might bring distractions or endanger the lives of Marines in combat.

Ultimately, the voices of forward-fighting combat Marines who worried about unit cohesion in the Pentagon’s survey swayed Marine Corps Commandant Gen. James Amos’ attention more than any other data point, leading him to recommend that Congress not repeal the law banning openly gay Americans from military service.

“Mistakes and inattention or distractions cost Marines lives,” he said. “That’s the currency of this fight.

“I take that very, very seriously,” he added. “I don’t want to lose any Marines to the distraction. I don’t want to have any Marines that I’m visiting at Bethesda [National Naval Medical Center, in Maryland] with no legs be the result of any type of distraction.”

Whether Amos's words have any effect on the effort to repeal DADT remains to be seen. House Democrats are introducing a stand-alone repeal bill, which incoming House Armed Services chairman Buck McKeon (R, Calif.) denounced today for prioritizing social policy ahead of the troops:

"Congressional Democrats continue to place a higher priority on repealing ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ than the actual legislation which would provide for our nation’s security, troops and military services. The defense authorization bill could—and should—have been passed months ago, but Democratic leaders have held it up because of controversial social provisions. The American people and our troops demand better."

But the lame-duck Democrats have enough votes to quickly pass the bill in the House.

Chances for repeal at this point depend almost entirely on (1) whether there's enough time to bring up a vote on a stand-alone repeal bill in the Senate and (2) whether moderate GOP senators such as Lisa Murkowski and Scott Brown vote for repeal.